Business travellers can be nudged highly effectively to reduce carbon impact by shifting from air to rail on routes where both options are viable, according to a study by the digital business travel information platform TouristMobile and the University of Innsbruck.
TouristMobile CEO Marina Hegemann is presenting the EU-funded research, which surveyed 1,200 business travellers and analysed data from one million business trips, at the annual conference of German travel management association VDR in Berlin today (25 April).
The study ran an A/B test for a mocked-up online booking tool on various routes, such as Berlin to Munich, with business travellers offered air and rail options at a similar price. In Test A, the duration of the trips was shown prominently as 1 hour 10 minutes for air and 4 hours 30 minutes for rail. Only half the travellers chose rail in this scenario.
For Test B, two modifications were made to the booking screen. The first was a graphic showing that the air option emitted 154kg of CO2 and the rail option 0kg (rail operator DB Business uses 100 per cent renewable energy). The second modification was the addition of a statement: “Flight time doesn’t include check-in, boarding and security checks.” In this scenario the proportion of travellers choosing rail rose to 66 per cent.
However, Hegemann said the significant potential to shift travellers to rail is not being met because most corporate booking tools are incapable of nudging business travellers.
“Some are not able to display air and rail on one screen, so you have to decide before you enter the online booking engine whether you want to go by train or fly,” she said. “You can do it in Opodo or Expedia in the consumer world but not in the business travel world.”
Demographic analysis of the results found infrequent travellers are easier to influence. The study also revealed that nudging is vital in the quest for sustainability because environmental consciousness on the part of travellers is unlikely to suffice alone.
Sustainability ranked only sixth out of eight criteria considered by travellers when planning a business trip. Travel time, cost and comfort were the top three factors by some distance.
Unsurprisingly, distance between the traveller’s home and the nearest airport or high-speed rail terminus proved a key factor in choice of transport mode. But, tellingly, flights were more popular than rail where the two departure points were equidistant.
The study also found that corporate booking tools are used by 70 per cent of travellers to plan their trips, but the wider internet is also used by 50 per cent to research travel options.
“All the travel managers we presented to were shocked that their travellers research the internet so much, and wanted to know what they were looking for,” said Hegemann. The reason, she added, is that travellers are not finding the information they need on corporate booking tools.